Tevfik Aksoy is a Managing Director and the Head of Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Economics at Morgan Stanley. Dr Aksoy is also responsible for the macroeconomic coverage of Turkey and Israel. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2008, he held a similar position at Deutsche Bank where he worked since 2004. In this role he also covered a number of East European and African countries. Prior to his role at Deutsche Bank, he held a number of positions in the financial services, public sector and in academia in the UK, USA and Turkey. He has 22 years of professional experience of which 17 years have been in banking. Dr Aksoy is a graduate of the University of Delaware where he received his PhD and MA degrees in economics. He also holds an MBA and a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (Turkey)

After the 2011 general election Ali Babacan was appointed to his current position of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs for the Republic of Turkey. At the change in Cabinet in 2009 Mr Babacan was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of Finance and Economy. On 29 August, 2007, he was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey. At the general elections held on 22 July 2007 he was re-elected to the Parliament. In addition to his tenure as Minister of Treasury, on 3 June, 2005, he was appointed as Chief Negotiator in Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union. At the general elections held in November 2002, he was elected to Parliament and appointed as the Minister of Treasury, a cabinet position he retained throughout the 58th and 59th Governments of the Republic of Turkey until August 2007. In 2001, he became a Founding Member and Board Member of the Justice and Development Party (AkParti), a position which he still retains. From 1992-94, Mr Babacan worked at a Chicago-based company providing financial consulting services to top executives of major banks in the United States. Subsequently, he returned to Ankara to run his family business from 1994 until 2002. In 1990, Mr Babacan was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and attended the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he received his MBA in Marketing, Organizational Behavior and International Business in 1992. In 1989, he received a Bachelor of Science Degree (BS) in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.

Hakan Binbaşgil joined Akbank as the Executive Vice President in charge of Change Management in October 2002. Mr Binbaşgil initiated the Bank's Restructuring Programme which has transformed Akbank into one of Turkey's most customer-focused, modern and innovative financial institutions. He was appointed Executive Vice President in charge of Retail Banking in November 2003, Deputy CEO in May 2008, and since January 2012 as Board Member and CEO of the Bank. Prior to joining Akbank, Mr Binbaşgil worked as a Management Consultant in the London and Istanbul offices of Accenture, and as Executive Vice President in a different private sector bank. He also served on the boards of directors of numerous companies domestically and abroad. Currently, in addition to his position as CEO at Akbank, he is also the Chairman of Ak Asset Management, Ak Investment, AkLease, Akbank AG and Akbank (Dubai) Ltd. After graduating from Robert College Mr Binbaşgil graduated from Bosphorus University, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. He also holds MBA and MS degrees in Finance from Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, USA.

Cengiz Çandar is Senior Columnist of Radikal (Daily) of Istanbul, Turkey, a TV commentator and Middle East expert. Mr Çandar graduated from the School of Political Sciences, Ankara University (1970) and the Middle East Technical University (1971). His previous roles include: Adjunct Professor on the Modern History of the Middle East, Istanbul Bilgi University (1997-1999), Istanbul Kültür University (2002-2010), and Özyegin University (2011). He was also Special Advisor to President Turgut Özal of Turkey on Foreign Affairs (1991-1993), a Public Policy Scholar at The Wilson Center, Washington, DC (1999), and Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (1999-2000). He was also Member of the Council of Experts of the Democratic Progress Institute, London. Mr Çandar is the author of eight books in the Turkish language, mainly on Middle East issues. He contributed to “Turkey’s Transformation and American Policy” (2000) and “Allies in Need – Turkey and the US” (2002, Century Foundation publication, New York).

Daniel Dombey is the Financial Times's Turkey Correspondent, based primarily in Istanbul. He was previously stationed in Washington, working there from 2007 until 2011 as the FT's US Diplomatic Correspondent. In that role he came to cover the US defence and intelligence beats as well as foreign policy and the State Department. Mr Dombey previously covered diplomatic beats for the FT in both London and Brussels, where he first got to grips with issues such as Iran's nuclear programme, European Union foreign policy and Nato's role in Afghanistan. During five years in the Belgian capital, he also covered a series of other areas, including the start of EU membership negotiations with Turkey, competition policy and efforts to agree on a European constitution. Mr Dombey started writing for the FT in Mexico in 1995. He has an MPhil in Latin American Studies from Cambridge University and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.

Turgut Erkeskin entered the transport and logistics sector in 1985, establishing GENEL TRANSPORT in 1988. Since November 2010 Mr Erkeskin is the President of UTİKAD – The Association of International Forwarding and Logistics Service Providers in Turkey. He is also a member of The Assembly of Istanbul Chamber of Commerce. He represents the Turkish Logistics Sector in various international platforms such as FIATA – The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (being active in the Working Group for Sea Transport), CLECAT – The European Association For Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services and ECOLPAF – The ECO Logistics Providers Associations Federation. He graduated from Istanbul University Faculty of Economics in 1984.

David Gardner is the Financial Times's International Affairs Editor and an Associate Editor. Previously, he was Chief Leader Writer at the Financial Times. His areas of expertise include the Middle East and South Asia. Among his previous jobs are: Mexico and Central America Correspondent 1984-89; Brussels Correspondent 1990-94; Middle East Editor 1995-99; and South Asia Bureau Chief 1999-2001. Mr Gardner won the David Watt prize for international journalism in 2003. He regularly appears on international television and radio.

Dr Vusal Gasimli is a Chief of the Department of Economic Analysis and Global Affairs at the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Dr Gasimli graduated from Azerbaijan State Economic University and received his Masters in Economics in 1997. He also studied at postgraduate level at Azerbaijan State Agricultural Academy. He has a PhD in Economics and he received his MA in Journalism from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (based on the study programme of Louisiana State University). He is a lecturer on Macroeconomics at Azerbaijan State Economic University. He was the President of ANS-PRESS Publishing House from 2005-2007, and was an expert in the European Union from 2009-2010. Dr Gasimli's article "Currencymageddon: a foothold for international financial architecture" has been selected by G-Global communication platform as "the best article of G-Global platform". He has delivered lectures in Washington University in Saint-Louis, Warsaw University and Milan Catholic University.

As Vice President and Country Director -Turkey, Han Ilhan is based in Ankara to oversee the development of Alamos Gold’s mining investments in Turkey. Prior to joining Alamos Gold, Mr Ilhan had been with URS for 28 years leading the global mining practice in the area of engineering, environment and construction. He has been providing strategic and tactical planning for investments in various parts of the world for mining, as well as business risk assessment, management and mitigation strategies. His project experience has been located in many countries around the world including USA, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname, French Guyana, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Switzerland, UK, Turkey, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Libya. Mr Ilhan has been regularly invited as a speaker to various high-level mining industry conferences and has been interviewed by the Financial Times on sustainable development issues in the global mining sector and by Advertiser (Adelaide-Australia) on the mining boom in Australia.

Farid Jafarov joined SOCAR in 2009 as a Finance Director at SOCAR Trading (Singapore). In August 2010, Mr Jafarov became the Group Finance Director of SOCAR’s Turkey operations, and in 2011 has also been given dual responsibility to act as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of SOCAR. He holds a BA in Finance from Manchester University, UK (2000).

Hakam Kanafani is Türk Telekom Group’s CEO and member of Türk Telekom’s Board of Directors. Mr Kanafani serves on the boards of Türk Telekom Group’s broadband communications unit “TTNET” and mobile communications unit “AVEA”; and also as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Türk Telekom Group subsidiaries: Pantel International Group, Argela, AssisTT, Innova and Sebit. Before that he was the Chief Business Development and Synergy Officer for Oger Telecom. Previously he was the CEO of JAWWAL, Palestine's first private cellular network. Mr Kanafani started his career at NASA, Goddard Space flight centre. He is a University Trustee Scholar and holds Beta Gamma Sigma honours from the USA. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a founding member of Young Global Leaders and Young Arab Leaders. He is in GTB’s Power100 list for Telco executives worldwide and named Best CEO for Investor Relations in the Turkish stock exchange market.

After graduating from Bosphorus University in Industrial Engineering, İzzet Karaca worked for Koç Holding R&D Department as the Project Manager and System Organisation Department Manager for Otosan. In 1988 Mr Karaca joined Unilever and worked for Unilever International Audit in Germany as the Group Manager. Between 1991 - 2002 he has held various roles in Lever Europe. In 1994, he was appointed as the Commercial Director for the Ice Cream business, Algida Turkey. In 1997, he moved to Riga/Latvia as a Managing Director. In 1998, he returned to Turkey as the Managing Director of Algida. Since 2002, Mr Karaca is the Chairman of Unilever Turkey & Unica. He took over Iran in 2007 and Israel in 2009. He is the member of Unilever CEO Forum (Global Vice Presidents of Unilever), as well as GMEx (Global Markets Executive) since 2011. He is also the Chairman of the International Investors Association (YASED) since March 2011. As of 1 September 2011 he is the Executive Vice President Unilever, responsible for North Africa, Middle East & Turkey and Russia, Ukraine & Belarus, a region consisting of 35 countries.

Since 2010 Joost Lagendijk is a columnist for the Turkish dailies Zaman and Today’s Zaman. From 2009 to 2012 Mr Lagendijk worked as a senior adviser at the Istanbul Policy Center, the think tank of Sabanci University in Istanbul. From 1998 to 2009 he was a Member of the European Parliament (EP) for the Dutch Green Left Party. In the parliament he mainly worked on foreign policy and EU enlargement. For many years he was the chairman of the Turkey Delegation of the EP and the rapporteur for the parliament on the Balkans and Kosovo. Together with his colleague from the EP, Jan Marinus Wiersma, he wrote three books, on the borders of Europe, on the foreign policy strategies of the US and the EU, and on European policy towards its Muslim neighbours. Mr Lagendijk was born in the Netherlands and graduated as a historian from Utrecht University. He was a publisher of magazines and non-fiction books for ten years.

Soli Özel is a full time Professor at Kadir Has University. Mr Özel is also a columnist at Habertürk daily newspaper, and an advisor to TÜSİAD (the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association). He edits TUSIAD’s magazine, Private View and has guest lectured at Georgetown, Harvard, Tufts and other US universities and held fellowships at Oxford and the EU Institute of Strategic Studies. He is a regular contributor to German Marshall Fund’s web site’s On Turkey series and a regular contributor to the World Affairs Journal blog. He is on the board of directors of International Alert and is a Founding Partner of Tribeca, a communications consultancy firm. Mr Özel holds a BA in Economics from Benningon College (1981) and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University (1983).

Following professional engagements in the Turkish logistics sector, Ruhi Engin Özmen became one of the founding associaties of the company Mars Uluslararası Nakliyat ve Dış Ticaret Ltd. Şti. (Mars International Transport and Foreign Trade Ltd) in 1987. In 20 years, the company has become a leading group of companies in the Turkish transport and logistics industry. Mr Özmen is currently the acting Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors for the companies Mars Lojistik Uluslararası Taşımacılık Depolama Dağıtım ve Ticaret A.Ş., Mars Hava ve Deniz Kargo Taşımacılığı A.Ş., and Mars Sigorta Aracılık Hizmetleri Ltd, which belong to the Mars Logistics Group. He is also the acting President of the UND. Besides being engaged in various social responsibility projects, he serves society through the Mesudiye Development Foundation (MEGEV) as the Founding Member and Deputy President and through TÜRLEV (Logistics Research and Training Foundation of Turkey) as their Founding Member and President. Mr Özmen is also the Founder and President of the Board of Trustees of Beykoz Logistics Vocational High School. He has a MA in Communications.

On 1 July Hasan Pehlivan joined government organisation ISPAT as Principal Advisor to the President; his main responsibilities are to manage international entities in 15 countries and to define the strategy of the agency. Mr Pehlivan is second to the ISPAT President for reporting to the Prime Minister. In 2006 he became Director General for Gemalto Turkey operations and Director of ME payment systems. After a two year assignment at Schlumberger Headquarters in Paris covering worldwide marketing for production services, he moved to Schlumberger’s smartcard business in 2002 as Head of Sales and Marketing covering telecoms, payment systems and government programmes. He started his career in the oil and gas industry at Schlumberger Oilfield Services as Field Engineer in the Far East. He spent six years in the region as Operations Manager in South Sumatra, Indonesia as well as Technical Director for Japan,Vietnam,Taiwan and Thailand. Mr Pehlivan holds a BS degree with Honours in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University as well as an MBA with Honours from Bogazici University.

Suzan Sabancı Dinçer is the Chair and Executive Board Member of Akbank and the Chair of the Turkish-British Business Council of Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEIK). Ms Sabancı Dinçer began her career in banking in 1986 and joined Akbank in 1989. After holding different positions in the Bank, she was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2008. Under her stewardship, Akbank is today one of the most valuable companies in Turkey in terms of market capitalisation. Ms Sabanci Dinçer is a member of numerous international organisations in which she represents Turkey, including the Institute of International Finance Board of Directors, several international advisory boards such as the National Bank of Kuwait's and Blackstone’s. She also sits on the Chatham House Panel of Senior Advisers and is the Luxembourg Honorary Consul in Istanbul. Ms Sabanci Dinçer is strongly committed to social responsibility activities and assumes various positions in the fields of culture, education, the promotion of entrepreneurship and environmental protection. She is a member of The Prince's Charities Council and the Board of Trustees of Sabancı University, as well as a Founding Member and Board Member of Endeavor Turkey and of the Advisory Board of Akbank Sanat. Under her stewardship, Akbank became the first deposit bank in Turkey to issue a GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) rated Sustainability Report. It also pioneered the Carbon Disclosure Project in Turkey.

For the last 10 years Mehmet Şahintürk has been working at Ekol Logistics as General Industries Sector Manager with the responsibility of automotive, technology, chemical, HVAC and industrial products business. Mr Şahintürk worked in IT business for 17 years and was a shareholder of a system integrator company for nine years during this period. He has a Bachelor's degree, awarded in 1989, from Yildiz Technical University, Faculty of Engineering as a Mathematical Engineer.

Mustafa Sani Şener was appointed as the Member of the Board of Directors, President and CEO of TAV Airports Holding in 1997. Mr Şener graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Black Sea Technical University (BTU) in 1977. He earned his Engineering Masters degree in 1979 from the Department of Applied Sciences, University of Sussex, UK. He has been awarded with a Honorary Doctorate from BTU for his contributions to the development of Turkish engineering and a honorary Doctorate from Hellenic American University for his international success in Airport Management Business. Before his career at TAV Airports, Mr Şener filled various project manager and general manager positions in national and international projects. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Airports Council International (ACI) Europe.

Mehmet Şimşek was appointed as the Minister of Finance in May 2009, after having served as the Minister of Economy for about two years. Minister Şimşek was elected to the Parliament in July 2007 and June 2011, representing the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). He formulated the fiscal policy that helped Turkey recover strongly from the global financial crisis. He has also undertaken far reaching reforms, founding the Tax Audit Board, simplifying tax regulations, enhancing taxpayers’ rights, and reducing the shadow economy. Before entering politics, he worked for Merrill Lynch in London for seven years as Chief Economist and Strategist for emerging EMEA. From 1998 to 2000, he was a Senior Economist and Bank Analyst at Deutsche Securities. Earlier in his career, he worked for UBS Securities in New York (1997) and as a Senior Economist at the US Embassy in Ankara (1993-97). Minister Şimşek holds a BSc in Economics from Ankara University and went on to work as Research Assistant in its International Economics and Economic Development Department. He subsequently studied in the UK, having been awarded a State Scholarship to Exeter University, from which he obtained an MPhil in Finance and Investment.

Dr Murat Ulgen joined HSBC in April 2006 as Chief Economist for Turkey.Before joining HSBC, Dr Ulgen held several sell-side economist and strategist positions in London and Istanbul, covering 15 emerging market countries in that time zone. In December 2009, he was appointed HSBC’s Chief Economist for Central and Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Ulgen holds a doctorate degree in Finance and has also lectured at several Turkish universities on Economics.

Sinan Ülgen graduated in 1987 from the University of Virginia with a double major in Computer Sciences and Economics. Mr Ülgen undertook graduate studies at the College of Europe in Brugge, Belgium where he received, in 1990, a Masters degree in European economic integration. He then joined the Turkish Foreign Service as a career diplomat and worked for two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara at the United Nations desk. In 1992, Mr Ülgen was posted to the Turkish Permanent Delegation to the European Union in Brussels where he became part of the team that negotiated the Turkey-EU customs union. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of Istanbul Economics. The consultancy specialises in market entry strategies for international companies, political and economic risk analysis related to Turkey, and regulatory affairs. Mr Ülgen is also the Chairman of the Istanbul based think tank, Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), a member of the Europe Council of the World Economic Forum and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His opinion pieces have been published by international newspapers such as Le Figaro, the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, European Voice, the International Herald Tribune and Project Syndicate. He is also the co-author of a book on Turkey-EU relations with Kemal Dervis.

Selim Yenel was posted as Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Turkey to the European Union in December 2011. Mr Yenel entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in 1979. His first posting was the Turkish Delegation to the OECD in Paris between 1981 to 1984. From there he went to the Turkish Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (1984 - 1986). After returning to the MFA he was posted to the Turkish Delegation to the UN in New York (1988 - 1992). From 1994 - 1999 he was at the Turkish Delegation to the European Union in Brussels. He returned to Ankara and dealt with EU matters up to the opening of accession negotiations (1999 - 2005). Subsequently he was posted as Ambassador to Vienna until October 2009 when he returned to Ankara as Deputy Under-Secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs and Public Diplomacy.

Alper Hakan Yüksel joined Akbank in March 2011 as Executive Vice President in charge of Corporate Banking. Prior to joining Akbank, Mr Yüksel held various managerial positions at different financial institutions locally and abroad. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Middle East Technical University.